How did it happen?  One moment you are pouring your heart out in your diary and the next minute you are sharing your secrets with the world and strangers to boot!

I started looking for my diary, it’s somewhere in the attic, next thing you know I’m throwing out old metal curtain rods, it’s a wonder I ever accomplish anything.

While I didn’t find my diary, I did come across an old relic…my bottle of peacock blue Skrip ink, ah the things we hold on to.

I was thinking about how much I enjoy getting a note or card in the mail.  I tend to keep them.  That got me thinking about a goal of writing and sending a note or card once a week through Snail Mail.  I haven’t hit the mark every week, but I’m doing more than ever before, so it’s a start.

How’s your handwriting these days?  I have a couple of friends that still have pulchritudinous penmanship.  Can you tell I use the dictionary while writing these blogs?   It just seems that I constantly use the same over-used words, beautiful being one of them. Pulchritudinous can be our word of the day, you’re welcome! I wonder if anyone under the age of 30 could define penmanship.

Now don’t get me wrong, I happen to love email and all this social media stuff.  It’s instantaneous and addicting to someone with my personality. I know there are all types of syndromes that define various conditions from minor to very serious.

If there isn’t a Sally Field Syndrome, than I will officially create one based on her Oscar winning speech delivered on March 25, 1985. She won Best Actress for her performance in “Places in the Heart.”  When I researched the date of her remarks I was totally surprised to read that she delivered one of the most misquoted statements in pop culture history.

Most quote Field as telling the members of the Oscar audience that night, “You like me, you really like me.”

Field, who won her first Oscar in 1980 for her role in “Norma Rae,” actually said, “You like me, right now, you like me!”

I certainly have misquoted it for nearly 30 years as well.  My point is that blogging and tweeting has a great deal to do with “liking.”  The more “likes” the better; whether it’s “right now” or down the road.

Bloggers have been around longer than you may realize.  One of the pioneers is Justin Hall. He started blogging while a student at Swarthmore College in 1994.

A simple Google search will give you an enormous sampling of blog topics.  You like politics, it’s there, food yep, hedge hogs, whatever you like, someone is writing about it.

The major difference about sharing your thoughts in the elusive diary is that one is so private including a key that you kept hidden from your mother and a blog is about as public as you can get.

Unlike Facebook with its privacy settings, bloggers count on the World Wide Web to deliver our message to the masses.

Now what?  You ask, cajole, and twist the arms of your friends to be part of the Sally Field Syndrome, and “like” you. Oh that can definitely be awkward. What are they supposed to say, “Naw, I don’t “like” you that much?”  I wish I could send each of my Facebook friends a “gift for reading” much like a gift with purchase but that isn’t going to happen. Bribery isn’t pretty, but photos can be.

That’s when I turned to my latest passion, photography.  I am a real serious amateur; let’s make no mistake about this.  I’m okay with that status, especially when I realize what the pros actually know and what they can do with a camera.

None the less, I find that I just can’t stop taking pictures wherever I go.  It can be at a large intersection with a long signal; when a hawk is flying in the distance and I spring (not literally) into action.  I whip out the camera, shoot it through the windshield and then when I edited it later in the day; I get a bonus hawk in the same shot.  Now, this isn’t great quality photography, but you see what I mean about being on the ready. And, yes I was aware of the signal, which still hadn’t turned green.

The Born To Talk blog moves forward and I am still enjoying it very much.  But wait, there’s more…TWITTER!

I was just starting to get a handle on English and now what…Hashtags?  Didn’t we just call these pound signs? # And… @  Back in the day, was a shorthand symbol. Today we use it as part of our email address. But now, it’s just another way to introduce yourself.  Hello I’m @MarshaWietecha…Happy to meet you…Please “like” me!!

I’m telling you the truth; let’s just call it the SFS. You’re feeling it now, right? I’m fairly new to Twitter, just 2 months in and now I’ve traded “likes” to “Followers.”

Oh yeah, “likes” are still cool and much needed and appreciated and counted in the Blogosphere.  In Twitterland, how many people Follow you and Retweet (RT) and Favorite your postings are also measured.

AND, imagine doing all of this in 140 characters or less, including spaces and punctuation.

Here is the good news, because it’s all good news from my perspective, I have gained a new view of the world. Nothing could be more exciting.

I feel like a kid that just got permission to ride my bike farther than around the block for the first time. The exploration of seeing and doing things from a new vantage point is exhilarating.

I like to let my photo’s to do the talking, once they have been condensed.  Much like the restriction in characters, the size of the photos on tweeter must meet size criteria as well.

Like a big box store with many aisles, you can find a ton of topics.  I’ve landed in “Birdland” with some of the most amazing professional and amateur photographers from all over the world. It’s astounding to see the photos of my new twitter followers and those that I am following.

“Birdland” is just the beginning, because people that photograph birds also seem to enjoy all aspects of nature, like me.  Some of my latest followers don’t speak English, but photos transcend the written word.

I still need to follow my golden rules of “Manage Your Expectations” and “Patience.” But I am sure enjoying this new excitement.  So much so, that I bought a new camera today.

Oh for heaven’s sake!! Have I mastered the current one? That would be no, but you know how it happens, you go to Costco to buy the Thanksgiving Turkey, and you end up buying a camera too!  Did you just call me a Turkey?

This new one is also a Panasonic, but it’s not a pocket size, although it is a point and shot with a viewfinder as well. It’s 60x optical zoom…up from 30x on my pocket camera.  It was on sale and calling my name…

All charged up and ready to go. I haven’t read the manual, no surprise, right?  But I do have somewhat of an idea how to use it.

Here are my first few pictures.  As you know, I feed the birds in my yard. I haven’t had a pet cat in over 10 years; prior to that we had 3 cats. My college student neighbors have a cat.  Simba has adopted a friend, so now there are two cats that live across the street.  Both are pretty but while Simba is friendly and will roll over and rub against your leg, her friend is a fraidy cat.

As I was walking through my kitchen with new camera, I was surprised to see Fraidy Cat sitting right next to the table where I feed the birds. She is pretty, there is no denying that, but what the heck is going on? These are shot through my sliding beveled glass door.

I’m trying to figure this new camera out.  What is she looking at???

That’s when I noticed the Yellow Finch, which hasn’t been around for months, sitting in the pine tree above the cat.  She is just starring and I’m trying to get a picture but I’m in the house and can’t get it clearly…until

Now my attention is on trying to avoid what came next, double exposure with the bevel glass.  That’s okay. I’m a work in progress with a new camera, Facebook, Blog and Twitter. This may have busted all previous blogs with a ton of words compared to pictures!

I like it!